Them That Follow

This is a slow burn drama about a community of isolated snake handlers. Mara (Alice Englert) is the daughter of "take up the serpent" preacher (Walton Goggins). Like most people, everyone is wrong but them when it comes to religion and they don't understand why the government takes away their poisonous snakes. Mara has issues. She is devoted to her faith. She is pregnant by one boy and marries another without telling anyone. As secrets unravel, the film picks up. Guide: No F-word. Brief rape. No nudity.

Slow-paced. Brooding. Intriguing. Good acting. An unusual movie about a backwoods, Pentecostal, snake-handling congregation. Sinful secrets are bubbling under the surface and threaten to ruin the tight-knit, faithful community. The writers made a creative choice to surround an overplayed love story with the interesting addition of giving us a window into a fairly unknown and controversial religious sect. In My Humble Opinion, it definitely won't be for everyone, with its unorthodox subject matter, subdued acting, and inconclusive ending... but it held our attention through to the end.

Dever and Goggins together again. Justified Fans Rejoice! HALLELUJAH!! Watch their careers blosom.

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This has to be one of the worst movies I've seen this year. It is a total waste of time. Somehow I managed to finish it because I thought maybe, just maybe it might get good, but nope. Shake Worshiping Christians arw whack, we all know that. The only good thing about this movie is that it shows a Hollywood side of it that is shocking, but when the story isn't written well, and the actors try their best, sometimes a little too hard, it really makes for both bad filmmaking and story writing. This is a total waste of time. Don't believe the reviews that say about it picking up in the third act.

This movie is about the standard 90 minutes long but at the 60 minute point I felt like I had watched it for two hours. It dragged on and on. The story is OK - not that much really happens of much interest. It would have been much more engaging if the story explored the turmoil of the characters in more depth - I did find it very superficial for the most part. It's not a movie I would watch again.

Fresh from her Oscar win in The Favourite, Oliva Colman is back, this time going "all indie" in the directorial debut of newcomer scenarists Britt Poulton and Dan Madison Savage. Reminiscent of the earlier 2010 Indie, Winter's Bone, Them That Follow also follows a group of rural folks (this time set in Appalachia). These "folks" are religious fundamentalists with a church run by pastor Lemuel Childs (Walton Goggins). Childs has everyone under his grip including his daughter Mara (Alice Englert), who briefly falls for the young Augie (Thomas Mann), a local auto mechanic, who has grown disillusioned with Childs' Pentecostal church. Oh one thing I forgot to mention-the church really is a cult in which parishioners test God's power by embracing poisonous snakes. Clandestine meetings are held to avoid scrutiny by local law enforcement with Childs the number one promoter of an "us against them" mentality. Colman plays Hope Slaughter, Augie's Mom, and she's just about as fanatical as the pastor. Mara is now towing the party line and agrees to an arranged marriage with Childs' hand-picked suitor, the dutiful sycophant Garrett (Lewis Pullman), who soon learns that Mara is pregnant with Augie's child. Eventually the pastor is forced to expel him from the church after he tries to rape Mara, in revenge for her so-called betrayal. Most unconvincingly, Augie decides to forsake his contempt for the church and agrees to undergo a ritual snake bite ceremony, in order to prove his love for Mara. After being bitten by a snake during the ceremony, Augie falls deathly ill and even his Mom refuses to countenance the idea of taking him to the hospital. She even goes along with the parishioners who end up sawing off Augie's arm in a last ditch attempt to save his life. Mara finally comes around at film's end, defies her father (who excommunicates her) and drives Augie to the hospital where presumably he'll be cured. Hope by the way also sees the light and realizes that the drive to the hospital is a "good thing." Them That Follow is a grim story in which all melodramatic tropes are checked off. Augie is the broken victim and deep down Mara is the angel who realizes the error of her ways after being brainwashed by her evil pastor-dad. The script is strictly "black and white" with few shades of gray. Somehow the characters here need to be more complex, with perhaps the bad guys infused with some charm (as well as humanity) and the good ones, a little less angelic. All performers manage to acquit themselves nicely, especially Colman who once again does well in the intense part as the obsessed "believer." Them that Follow is a bit slow moving with one too many snake handling scenes, which ends up becoming repetitious. In the end, one wonders how newcomers Poulton and Savage came up with their sensational story and characters of religious extremism; is it based on an article culled from the tabloids? One gets the impression that the screenwriters really only know of their religious fundamentalist characters from a distance, as they are painted too unsympathetically, with little verisimilitude to boot.

This is a great, small film. Not slow, not anti anything. Just a slice of life in a community that is isolated and often misunderstood.

This is a beautiful and deeply felt look into a small subculture of America, charismatic Christian religious cults which revolve around the handling of poisonous snakes. It is not an exposee -- each person is acting from sincere emotions and beliefs, however misguided they may appear to most of us. For instance, they reject modern medical care, preferring to rely on the Holy Ghost to heal people. As in 'Witness' years ago, the cohesion of the group is the predominant factor in all aspects of the lives of its members. The story focuses on the daughter of the charismatic preacher. She is a strong believer, and yet is attracted to a youth who has rejected the religion. The movie is superbly acted, with Oscar winner Olivia Colman, the always memorable Walton Goggins as the preacher, and Kaitlyn Devers from the TV show 'Justified'.

Boring story. Nothing happens that you don't expect. I hate snakes. Exploits worst aspects of religious thinking.